My 71 1800 Diesel

[jp]

Click here for lots of pics of my restore a couple of years ago.. I have now taken it off the road again to finish the restore, upgrade to porka 4 pots all round and fit a Turbo Diesel engine... hope to be finished for next summer when it should hopefully be all painted up in white over porsche riviera blue

Pics

When I first purchased it from ebay

Ford 1800 Diesel Fitted

Porsche Brakes and Wheels fitted

Kinda Where I'm at at the mo

 

[easy]

Hello mate and welcome 8)

Thats one hell of an engine!

What made you decide to fit that? size etc?

Looks like its gonna be a great resto 8)

 

[gninnam]

Like the wheels & brakes - not sure about the derv engine!
Welcome

 

[jp]

Hello mate and welcome 8)

Thats one hell of an engine!

What made you decide to fit that? size etc?

Looks like its gonna be a great resto 8)

Engine choice was already made as when I bought it the guy had already attempted to fit it so had the required adapter plate, engine etc..

Decided to go for this engine after a couple of years of aircooled hell... slow, thirsty, unreliable, expensive parts, next to no heating, always seem to be time for a service.. could only see 1 benefit to having a aircooled engine and that was that it didn't require antifreeze in the winter

Benefits of the Ford Diesel was they are cheap to buy £50 will probably get you a half descent MOT failed car, little maintainenance required, I was returning 40mpg cruising at 80mph down the motorway over the last couple of years, pulls well up hills, I have 2 heaters that bang the heat out, hopefully a easy upgrade to TD for a bit more ummph. On the downside it is a ford which doesn't carry the street cred of the scooby/porsche conversions and gets lots of digs from the 'airheads' / purists.

 

[kombiporsche]

ouch!

Why this engine ????

 

[Tintop]

Nice van, good luck with the resto.

Like unique vans, we are not all the same.

I am considering an engine swap/upgrade but need to get resto over first.

 

[jp]

ouch!

Why this engine ????

Cheap, Reliable, torquee, bulletproof, low maintenance, provides heating facilities and most importantly does 40 miles per gallon.

Any better suggestions for the money :?:

 

[Scampi]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Nice van fella :lol:

 

[easy]

Looks like it has been a quality mod for your van. Its nice to see different engines in 8)

 

[jp]

Been a while, it now looks like this after lots of welding, new panels and a fresh coat of paint

Now need to plumb the Porsche brakes up
Fit Rascal Steering Rack with EPS (electronic power steering) column from Corsa
Fit Turbo Diesel Engine and strip loom/wire it up
Fit new radiator set up
Fit Charge cooler +rad
and so on and so on

For now I'll just stare at it's shineyness

 

[leon]

Looks good. I've also considered putting a diesel engine in my van for exactly the same reasons.

Couple of questions regarding conversion. Did you do any none returnable to stock mods to fit it? and where have you put the radiator?

Leon.

 

[leon]

Just noticed, you've cut the engine bay. Any others?

 

[froggy]

Looks good. I've also considered putting a diesel engine in my van for exactly the same reasons.

Couple of questions regarding conversion. Did you do any none returnable to stock mods to fit it? and where have you put the radiator?

Leon.

Gotta agree, if i could get better MPG then i would be tempted to get rid of the 2nd car and use the van as a daily

 

[jp]

Can't think of any other bits I've chopped there was a bit to fit the rear porsche arms but that is nothing to do with engine conversion just being a tart :lol:

Radiator is located between the chasis rails

 

[leon]

Hard to make out, but is it at an angle, with some sort of air scoop? More pics if possible?

 

[jp]

A load of pics HERE

 

[jp]

A momentous occasion on Wednesday after 6 years and 9months of Resto and some serious modernising.. 20 Different models of Donor Vehicle.... I have an MOT :mrgreen:



First Drive of it...
EPS with Rascal Steering Rack is sweet and so easy to steer though badly need to get tracking done.
4 Pot Porsche Brembo's all round with servo are immense (MOT Tester Agreed when he put it on the machine)
TDI Engine sounds ace with all it's whooshing and whistling and pulls well.
Suspension is way to soft so need to get my airshocks on to hopefully assist with this.


Time to enjoy

 

[mychatype3]

Looking good JP congratulations on the MOT arty0053:

Greetings from Holland, mycha

 

[jp]

Cheers Mycha I seriously need to sort out the air shocks or do something to the the rear.. the original torsion bars really can't handle the TDI lump unsurprisingly. I need to see if I can fit a pair of Hijackers in the back to assist with the weight.

With the old Diesel engine and original suspension set-up I had coil overs which worked a treat alas the coilover were to big for the new set up with the 944 arms/hubs etc..

Are you running drop spindles on the front of yours?

 

[sidecargezzer]

interesting idea, I wonder how hard it would be to fit a Golf/Rabbit motor?(anyone done this?) into the bus. Other than staying on top of the maintenace in my view the bus/aircooled motors are fine but slow, kind of like owning and racing my Maico's you have to do the maintenace.